Saturday, 11 December 2010

The essential entrepreneurial dilemma (Part 2 of 4)

Diodorus had been the head of the Lyceum during the preceding decades. Despite his efforts, the school had progressively lost ground to its main competitor, the Academy founded by Plato. Shortly after Andronicus became head of the Lyceum, the Roman legions invaded Greece and the economic situation in Athens turned from bad to worse.

A few years later, the state of affairs had barely improved and Andronicus was faced with the most difficult decision of his life. The implications were so far-ranging that no one could have foreseen all consequences. The Lyceum was going through difficult times, which called for swift action and strong leadership.

For Andronicus, there were two choices. On the one side, he could concentrate all resources on expanding the school curriculum in order to attract new students from Greece, Rome, Libya, and Egypt. On the other side, he could devote the available manpower to compile and edit the works of Aristotle, whose manuscripts were rapidly deteriorating and risked being lost forever.To be continued in Part 3

[Text: http://johnvespasian.blogspot.com]

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